And what happens when we do? Simon Winchester--an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and acclaimed author of the New York Times bestsellers The Professor and the Madmen, The Map That Changed the World, Krakatoa, Atlantic, and Pacific--explores with Julie and Eve how he addressed the man-made notions of land ownership and dispossession in his latest book, Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World. They discuss how the Netherlands ingeniously expanded its territory without the use of thievery, battle, or loss of life; how a single line drawn by a fountain pen brutally and senselessly cost the lives of 2 million Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs in India and Pakistan; and how, exactly, Simon managed to survive an expedition-turned-rescue-mission on an uncharted section of the East Greenland ice cap.
Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World
In many ways, Land combines bits and pieces of many of Winchester’s previous books into a satisfying, globe-trotting whole. . . . Winchester is, once again, a consummate guide.
—Boston Globe
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
An extraordinary tale, and Simon Winchester could not have told it better. . . . [He] has written a splendid book. -- The Economist
Go Deeper
The Professor and the Madmen, by Simon Winchester
The Map That Changed the World, by Simon Winchester
Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World, by Simon Winchester
Oxford University East Greenland Expedition
The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
The New York Times (2017), “The Dutch Have Solutions to Rising Seas. The World is Watching.”